Lebanon Rejects Any Changes to UNIFIL Mandate
Lebanon has called for a U.N. peacekeeping force's mandate to be renewed without changes so that it can continue working to prevent hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah.
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil conveyed Lebanon's position to representatives of the U.N. Security Council's permanent members on Tuesday.
The peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is up for renewal when its mandate expires Aug. 31. Israel and the U.S. are pressing for improvements to the force to combat what they say is the spread of illegal arms to Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.
The UNIFIL commander in Lebanon and the Lebanese government reject the claims. Bassil said renewing the force's mandate is paramount to the country's security. He pointed to what he said were daily Israeli violations of U.N. resolutions and Lebanese sovereignty.
30 August 2017, 10:10
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Imbassil the corrupt and the incompetent has a point of view...
30 August 2017, 15:22
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If they put just some of the Hizballah missiles in the lap of the UNIFIL Commander, he still would not see them. Show him a million photos, and still you would be wasting your time.
He and his Irish Government are well known for their strongly pro-Palestinian anti-Israeli stance and he certainly wouldn't want to take a stance at loggerheads with his government.
By the way, looking at his biography, it is clear that he has never lead a unit out in the field, always been a military pen-pusher or classromm teacher.
